Thread: Pokémon: An international cultural phenomenon: An examination of the franchise in pop

Pokémon: An international cultural phenomenon: An examination of the franchise in popular culture

Pokémon; a franchise that now ranks as the second best selling video game series in history per units sold, placing it behind only Mario. No series can gain such a massive amount of popularity without being referenced or parodied in the mainstream media; and despite the fact it is clearly a series aimed at young children, many of these cultural references can be found in series that are unequivocally aimed at an older audience.

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That was a great read.

I actually never knew about the Swellow cameo.

Yeah, neither did I know about it, I thought they were just a bunch of regular birds at first.

omg so terrible this isn't news >:[









just kidding ;D

Yeah I didn't know there were so many references in so many different shows/movies. And I can remember when I got that Charizard card :3 good times.

They were swallows, not Swellows.

You know, the actual bird?

I agree that the Swellow thing is not based on the actual Pokemon.
Its probably this type of swallow that was smacking into the dome:

How big were they? Barn swallows seem tiny while Swellows are HUGE.

I love this article. It's very fascinating. I never knew there were Swellows, and Ash's face on the Simpsons episode in the picture is really hilarious. I also find all the Pokemon references funny to read, like the Everybody loves Raymond one.

If I have to throw my thought in on parodies, I would say that it's a shame that Animaniacs didn't get to parody Pokemon, because I think there would be a lot of potential.

Due to inconsistencies in the Dome's size, I find it difficult to measure the size of the birds accurately. There are also no surrounding objects the birds can be measured against.

Originally Posted by Vraell

Due to inconsistencies in the Dome's size, I find it difficult to measure the size of the birds accurately. There are also no surrounding objects the birds can be measured against.

Immediately after they begin sliding down the glass it scrolls down to the cats below, which appear to be or a similar size, IIRC.

IIRC in that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray's daughter trades away a whole bunch of cards for a single rare one and Ray forces her to trade them back. She then says she hates him or something and then Ray tries to get that card back, ultimately buying the card and some comics from a Comic Store.

I thought those birds were just swallows, but now that I look at them, they look more like Swellow.

They don't have that back crest thing ot whatever you call it. They do look like Swellow but thats mostly because Swellow looks the same as a Swallow.

Originally Posted by CypherFDP

They were swallows, not Swellows.

You know, the actual bird?

Originally Posted by Mr. Error

I agree that the Swellow thing is not based on the actual Pokemon.
Its probably this type of swallow that was smacking into the dome:

Also, subtitles say SWALLOWS not SWELLOWS.

I have the Simpsons movie on DVD so I can check for myself. I'll post back with my findings.

Nice article, btw, it was interesting. :)